Kamikaze Alchemist
by Ranko twin
Summary: Akane lives most of her life feeling under appreciated and weak, always being put down by her fiance and rivals. But then she realizes that she is an Alchemist, forecefully torn from the world of Ed and Al when she was young, to be left without Alchemy. Then she returns, but at a price. Does she want to stay? Or does she realize she was happy with Ranma and wants to go back?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ or Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to me.

-/-

Voices of ghosts and forgotten memories filled her head.

"_Hey, wait up!"_

"_Come on, you slowpoke!"_

Voices of people she once knew and of the person she once was.

"_You're the best."_

"_I hate you."_

"_I love you."_

"…_I love you too."_

Voices of past regrets and of past sorrow.

"_Don't let go!" A scream. "Ed!"_

"_No!" Painful sobs. "Akane!"_

Running, running away from someone, maybe something. Running, ragged gasps. Can't run anymore. Keep on running. Don't stop. _"Something's chasing me!"_ That's why you don't stop running. So cold. A numb feeling. But you keep on running. Toward the light at the end. Away from the blinding pain pulsing through your head.

Screams of terror. Sobbing. Laughter. Crying.

Who's crying?

But don't stop running. Too late. Black, purple tentacle hands reach out and grab your ankles. Wide eyes, not human eyes, staring at you. Cheshire cat teeth gleaming. Evil laughter.

And then you wake up.

Akane stared up at her ceiling in fright, expecting to see wide, inhuman eyes staring down at her with malicious glee and frightening Cheshire cat smiles. Instead she saw a pair of concerned blue-gray eyes, eyebrows knitted together with worry, and a normal sized mouth speaking to her. Akane was still in a daze; what was this person saying?

"Akane? Akane? Are you alright?" a beautiful voice asked.

The girl in question continued to stare at him blankly, like he was speaking an alien language. Who was this person? Why was he so familiar?

Akane caught a glimpse of a black pigtail lying against his broad shoulder. Akane had a vision of soft golden hair, like wheat, tied in a similar pigtail and playful, happy, alive golden eyes. Akane blinked away the vision.

Akane gathered her wits and mumbled, "Ranma?"

Ranma let out a sigh of relief and a soft smile graced his lips. "Thank goodness, I thought something bad had happened to you. I heard you whimpering and crying in your sleep and thought something was wrong. And then when you woke up it looked like you forgot who I was." Ranma snorted. "Kind of hard to forget someone like me though," Ranma said lightly, in an attempt to make Akane laugh.

Ranma's blue eyes glistened like the golden sun.

Golden.

That's all the girl could see.

In another time period, in another dimension, the golden boy was also thinking.

Ed stood outside of East City Eastern Command Center in the rain with his younger, yet bigger, brother, Alphonse. Edward was contemplating many things in his head at that moment as his brother wondered off in search of something, honestly, Edward didn't care at the moment. He was too lost in his thoughts.

He was thinking how much he didn't want to hear any of Mustang's smart ass remarks about the Philosophers stone and how short he was, and on and on and on. So hilarious. But he was also thinking about how much he hated dark colors. Black and gray, like the clouds above them; but also dark blue and deep brown. He hated those colors the most. Not just because they contrasted with his bright hair and eyes, but for different, more personal reasons.

He inwardly chastised himself for thinking about that again. He vowed to himself that he would forget; never again would he go through that pain.

"Might as just get the verbal abuse over with," Ed mumbled to himself. He raised his head that had been slumped forward as he thought. "Let's go…Al?" His voice died off when he realized the big hunk of armor was no long standing next to him. "Hey, Al?" Edward looked around until he spotted his brother crouched down in a narrow alley. "Al!" the older brother said with slight annoyance.

The boy jumped at the sound of his name and looked over his shoulder at his short-tempered, emphasis on short, brother. He stood up awkwardly, his armor clanking, and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, even though he couldn't feel his hand. "Coming brother."

Ed narrowed his eyes when he thought he heard a soft 'mew'. "What are you up to?" he asked suspiciously.

Al's armored body clanked as he ran up to his older brother, having to look down at him. "Uh…" he started, trying to come up with an excuse.

But Al was saved from answering when the brothers heard a terrified yell coming from inside the building. The two exchanged looks, shrugged, and walked through the gates and into the Command Center, the strange noise forgotten.

_Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return._

_To obtain, something of equal value must be lost._

_That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange._

_In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth._

Akane sat at her desk in a daze, a plain piece of paper in front of her and she was drawing pointless doodles, not even registering what she was drawing. The girl sighed and rested her chin in her hand, looking out her window, her hand never ceasing its work. Her brain still felt foggy from the dream she had, if you could call it that.

She was thinking of that dream. It was unlike any dream she had ever experienced before. She felt pain, she felt the cold and the numbness in her body, and she felt those shadowing, tickling, disgusting tentacle hands climb up her legs, wanting to drag her down.

Akane clenched her eyes shut and shook her head, clenching her pencil in her fist until it snapped in half. The little sharp edges of the broken pencil sticking into her palm snapped her out of her thoughts. Akane jumped in her seat at the light cracking noise the pencil made. She quickly looked down at the piece of paper and couldn't decide whether to be confused or shocked.

On the once clean piece of paper was now a collection of circles with strange markings and triangles. All over the paper, each design was different. In one of the circles she thought she recognized a sort of flame drawing.

Before she could study them any further there was a light tap on her door before it was pushed open a crack. Akane quickly hid the paper and spun around in her chair.

Kasumi peaked her head in and smiled at her younger sister. "Akane, your bath is ready."

Akane smiled in thanks. "Thanks, Kasumi," Akane said. She didn't understand the need to hide her drawings from everyone, they were just drawings, right?

Kasumi nodded, completely oblivious before closing the door, humming softly.

Akane sighed softly and quickly collected her clothes, why was she so jumpy? There was no reason to worry about those circles. Akane shrugged her shoulders before leaving her room to go bathe, not noticing the way the dark shadows in her room moved and slithered after her slowly.

Akane stripped off her clothes and neatly put them in the basket before grabbing a clean towel and wrapping it around her body. Happosai wasn't in town but you could never be too careful.

She sat in the bathing area, filling up a washing bucket to the brim with cold water, and then dumping it over her head. She shivered and quickly scurried to the warm bath. She sunk into the water and sighed, the chill leaving her body.

Akane closed her eyes in bliss, as the steam from the water seemed to shroud the room in the fog far too quickly. Everything was hidden behind the murky steam and made everything indecisive and surprisingly dark, considering it was morning. It wasn't until a chill brushed her shoulder like fingers did Akane open her eyes.

She finally noticed how thick the unnatural steamy fog was and looked ahead blindingly, trying to make out something that made sense. She saw a shadow moving by the door and Akane called out, "Kasumi?" No response. The shadow wasn't Kasumi. "Nabiki? Come on, this isn't funny!"

Again, no response.

By this point Akane was already groping for her towel at the end of the tub that was now missing.

Akane was shaking violently, the bath water was now chilled like ice water and Akane dashed out of the water, not bothering with the towel. "Ranma?" Akane's voice was shaking now. She tried to hide her body with her arms the best she could. "Ranma, stop playing around. Get out of here, you pervert."

After she said that she realized that there was more than one shadow; there were at least ten, no now fifteen, twenty. They were multiplying. They were either too thin or too plump to be human. And the way those wide, inhuman eyes stared at her and those Cheshire cat teeth twisted into a smile was too inhuman.

And then the shadows pounced.

Akane shrieked and fell on her bottom, she quickly crawled away from the shadows and curled herself into a tight ball, tucked into a corner. The shadows were hissing and laughing, saying things too fast for her to understand what they were saying. But she did manage to make out a few things.

"_We shall take back what is rightfully ours."_

"_You cheated death and now you pay the price."_

"_Come back with us."_

"_Come, come, come."_

"_You belong to us."_

"No! Leave me alone!" Akane screamed, terrified. She shut her eyes and covered her ears with her hands as those tentacle like hands crawled up her body and fingered her scars that circled both of her thighs and left shoulder.

Akane cried and wept as the slithering hands probed her body. But then it all stopped when the door was thrown open and the steam vanished, like it was never there in the first place. "Akane?" a familiar voice whispered to her, concern clear in their tone.

Akane slowly lowered her hands and opened her eyes, brown eyes meeting blue.

Ranma was wandering the house, bored out of his mind when he head Akane calling for him. He followed her voice and when he reached the bathroom he heard shrieking and crying.

When he came into the washroom he noticed Akane huddled in a corner, crying, her towel on the opposite side of the room. He paid no attention to the state of dress his fiancée was in and instead tried to comfort her. Something had upset, he knew that, but he didn't know what. The window was locked and Happosai was out of town, though you never know with that old man.

She was whispering something, something about shadows. The girl was very paranoid; she might have been scared because she thought she saw Happosai.

Then she looked into his eyes and by the look of complete terror written in her eyes, this went far beyond the creepy old man.

Without any warning, Akane threw herself into Ranma's arms, sobbing and shaking. Ranma's face went as red as his shirt, his clothes were now wet from Akane's hair and body. Ranma calmed his male hormones and patted Akane's head as the girl continued to cry.

"So many eyes, so many. They want to take me, they were going to take me." Akane clung to Ranma's shirt. "Please, don't leave me."

Ranma smoothed down her wet and whispered comforting nothings into her ear. "Shh, don't worry, I won't leave you, I'm right here."

Akane's body quit its shaking and relaxed in Ranma's arms. "That's good…" she said quietly. "Ed," she murmured so softly Ranma barely heard her, but due to years of training, his keen ears picked up the softest of sounds.

"What?"

In another dimension, across time, evil forces were plotting.

Lust strode into the room, standing tall and looking proud, as she always was. Gluttony strolled beside her, not so gracefully, his arms dragging across the floor. Envy, with his sultry ways, sauntered behind the two with a seductive look that would make Lust proud.

But someone else trailed behind the three. Someone that wasn't lanky like Envy, busty like Lust, or someone as disgusting as Gluttony. A human looking Homunculi with soft brown hair that fell across her shoulders, pale skin, and olive green eyes. This woman was wearing a practical business suit unlike the black garb the other Homunculi sported.

They stopped in front of an elderly old woman, sitting in a plush chair, sipping tea. She gave off a friendly grandmother aura but her eyes made the blood in one's veins freeze.

The woman placed her delicate tea cup on the saucer with a soft click and looked up at her four minions with distaste, even Envy, who, in turn, gave her an equally hate filled glance. She looked at each of them for a few seconds before landing on the human looking Homunculi.

"What news do you have for me, Sloth?" the elderly woman said in a tired tone. This body was growing weaker, that's why she had to choose a new vessel, and quickly.

Sloth stepped forward, not intimidated by the old woman, and grabbed a simple photograph from her coat pocket. She dropped it beside the woman's tea and bowed her head. A wrinkled hand gingerly picked up the photo and studied it carefully. "Who is this?"

"That girl could possibly be your new vessel, Mistress Dante. She is very young in that photo but she has obviously aged and she is a very beautiful young lady. She is a very good martial artist and alchemist. After trying to attempt human transmutation with the Elric brothers, she went through the Gate and was brought back to her own world. As you can tell from the photo, she was once friends with Edward and Alphonse Elric," Sloth finished.

Envy scowled at the mention of Ed's name.

With this new information, Dante looked over the picture again. The girl was indeed a beauty even at a young age, and that smooth skin. Dante smirked, it would be nice to get out of this wrinkled body again. She was between the Elric brothers, one armed looped around each of their shoulders.

She flipped the photo over and read the names. "Akane, hm?" Dante stood up from her seat and handed the photo to Envy. "I shall bring her to this world then," Dante said casually. "When she is here I want Envy to study her every move, make sure she is capable enough."

"But is it possible? To bring that girl to this world?" Lust questioned. Dante was indeed a skilled alchemist and could bring people across the Gate, but Dante had never attempted to bring adults across the Gate, only children.

Dante stopped dead in her tracks and turned a menacing eye on Lust. "Do you doubt my abilities, Lust?"

Lust stood with her mouth agape, not knowing what to say.

"If you actually opened your ears for once you would know that this won't be a difficult task. She was, and I can imagine still holds the skills to be an alchemist so all she has to do is create the right Transmutation circle and I'll do the rest. She has gone through the Gate before so part of her soul must still be lingering there." Dante scoffed. "You stupid whore."

With that said Dante walked off.

In Akane's world, the girl was sitting at her desk, studying the piece of paper with all the strange circles on it, like what happened in the bathroom never happened. She ran her fingers through her bangs, why were these designs so familiar to her, like she had witnessed them before.

"_My child,"_ a sweet voice suddenly whispered in her ear.

Akane quickly spun around in her chair. No one was behind her. Akane blinked; she could have sworn she heard someone.

Akane turned back around and she thought she heard the sloshing of water. _"My child, what would you give to remember?"_

Instead of spinning around Akane sat, frozen in her seat, her chocolate eyes glazing over. "Remember? Remember what?"

A giggle. _"Remember the power that you have, remember why those Transmutation circles are so familiar."_

Akane closed her eyes, in deep thought. Flashes of faceless children drawing on a stone floor with chalk came to her mind. Intelligible words they recited, ingredients named off. The power they displayed when they clapped their hands together. And those circles again. What did that kind voice say they were? Transmutation circles? The phrase…sounded familiar.

"_Isn't that what you always wanted? The power to overcome your enemies?"_

'Power? The same power those children have?' Akane thought, her eyes still closed. She smiled in satisfaction as she thought of finally beating Shampoo and Ukyou and proving to Ranma that she was better.

"_Yes, don't you want to be around people who appreciate you? Who love you?" _the voice asked, seeming concerned about her, but there was a hint of smugness.

'But, I am loved. I am appreciated,' Akane thought, images of Kasumi, Nabiki, her father, her mother…and then there was Shampoo, Ukyou, Ryouga, Mousse, Cologne, and… Ranma.

Akane felt a tear squeeze through her clenched eyelids.

The comforting voice now sounded soothing. _"Yes, my child, I feel your pain, and I can tell you how you can put it all to an end. I can take you to a place where people will love you."_

"Please," Akane choked out.

"_Yes, but first you need to open your eyes for me, then everything will be better."_

Without argument, Akane opened her eyes, and on her desk, right next to her clenched fist, was a photograph of three children. Akane immediately recognized the one in the middle. "That's me!" Akane exclaimed. "But, who are those two?" Akane whispered.

She held her face in her hand as a pulsing headache came on. Akane moaned in pain as images flashed before her eyes like a movie. Akane held both of her hands to her head as she yelled, trying to stifle her cries by biting her bottom lip.

_"Hey, wait up!" Al called from the bottom of a small hill. He had his hands on his knees and was huffing for breath._

"_Come one, you slowpoke!" Ed called right back, sticking his tongue out at his younger brother. Akane was giggling beside Ed, shouting to Al words of encouragement. _

"What?" Akane gasped out.

_Akane and Ed sat side by side on the couch, playing with twin iron horses and sketching fake Alchemic symbols and Transmutation circles. "You're the best. You know that, Ed?" Akane asked, nudging the smaller boy with her elbow._

_Ed 'hmph'-ed and turned his face away from the girl, blushing. "Well, I hate you," he said simply._

_Akane giggled, she knew he didn't mean that. "I love you."_

_Ed blushed even harder. He paused for a moment before answering her. "…I love you too."_

Akane yelled again. "What is this?"

_A purple cortex spun inside the circle, already having seized its first victim, Alphonse Elric. Now it sucked in the small girl. She screamed in terror, her wild wailing and crying tearing through the golden boy's heart. "Help me!" The girl felt her legs dematerialize. "Ed!" She reached out her right hand to grab him because she could feel the same thing happening to her legs happen to her left arm._

_"No!" Ed screamed. He reached his hand out, their fingertips brushing, almost touching, they could almost grab each other's hands. But then she was pulled away from him, Ed's hand falling into empty air. The last thing he saw was her terrified face before she disappeared. "Akane!"_

Akane fell off her chair, curled up in a tight ball, shaking violently. "Edward Elric," Akane whispered, the name was foreign but it felt right when she spoke it. " And Alphonse Elric. There is such a thing as Alchemy, I was an Alchemist,"

"Yes, and I can tell you a way for you to see them again. You just have to prick your finger and draw a simple Transmutation circle."

Akane stood up on wobbly legs, her eyes were still glazed over, but they held a certain gleam to them now. "Yes." Akane grabbed her razor she promised her dad she would always carry. She pricked her forefinger with it, just like Ed and Al did all those years ago. She felt the tears well up in her eyes but refused to let them fall.

_Meanwhile ~_

Ranma trudged up the stairs, feeling mentally drained. His mind was stuck on why Akane called him "Ed". Who is Ed? And right after she calmed down, Akane simply stood up, retrieved her towel and walked out of the washroom without another word. What had gotten into her?

So that's why Ranma was going to Akane's room, to ask why she was acting so strangely. Was it something he did? He would apologize just like he always did; he just needed to know what he did wrong. Could it be because of the incident in the bathroom, he wondered. No, Akane hugged him first, so it couldn't be that.

Ranma stood outside Akane's door, running through his dialogue again when a bright light flared through the cracks in Akane's door and then died down slowly. Ranma took only a moment to register this before he started pounding on Akane's door. "Akane! Akane, open up, what just happened? Akane!"

When Ranma didn't receive a response, he took a step back, pulling up his right leg and then affectively kicking the door down.

Ranma ran into the girl's room and did a quick scan. Akane's room was a disaster. Her wallpaper had been peeled off, and almost looked like it had been scorched. Her bookcase was broken in two pieces, her desk in the same condition. The window was broken and fine glass sparkled like diamonds across the room. And in the center of the room was a strange circle that was drawn in fresh blood; the razor Akane used lying carelessly next to it.

In the center of the circle was a half burnt photograph, seared at the corners. The pigtailed boy bent to retrieve it and sucked in a sharp breath. That was Akane in the photo, Ranma realized.

With trembling hands, the martial artist flipped the photo over. Half of the words were written in another language but he recognized a date: _1910._

"Akane!"

-/-

A/N: Okay, so I won't be updating for a while, so I wanted to give you guys something to read. Enjoy! Also, let me just mention how much fun it was to write the first scene with two word sentences. After that scene I couldn't stop doing that, so addictive.

Also, if you are bored one day, watch Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series. That is funny shit. But if you are offended and/or don't understand mature jokes, don't watch it. Also, I have recently become a Puzzleshipper! Okay, I'm done.

Review (I'm not that hard to impress)!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Neither Ranma ½ nor Fullmetal belongs to me.

-/-

The other residents of the Tendo house were all sitting peacefully in the family room, not talking but enjoying the others' company. Nabiki channel surfing, Soun and Genma cheating in Go, and Kasumi serving everyone.

"Akane!"

The Go game pieces clattered as they were dropped onto the board, Nabiki jumped in surprise, and Kasumi splattered hot tea on the hard wood table. "What the hell was that?" Nabiki snapped.

"Nabiki Tendo! Watch your tongue!" Kasumi chastised; Nabiki shrugged casually but shrunk away from what passed off as her sister's rage.

"It sounded like the boy," Genma commented as Soun rearranged the pieces in a way they weren't before. Genma noticed this and slapped his hand on the Go board, making the pieces jump and getting mixed up again. "Tendo! Are you cheating?"

Soun cleared his throat and avoided eye contact with his old friend. "Well, we should probably check on Ranma, see what's the matter?"

Kasumi tightened her ponytail and nodded, looking above them at the ceiling where the noise came from. "I hope everything is all right."

In the realm between time and space, a young girl was suspended in air, being held up by slimy, black tentacle hands that roamed over her body lustfully – blood lust. Wide, greedy eyes stared at the girl that had cheated them so many years ago, and now it was time to get what they deserved. Large smiles stretched out across the space, brightening it with their white teeth.

It was fortunate the girl was unconscious, or she would have gone mad from the inhumane sight.

Such delectable flesh, sweet blood, and delicate bones that they would love to crush under what passed off as hands.

But they could not deny orders from Miss Dante, they had to do what she asked of them or who knew what consequences awaited them.

But maybe…

Their smiles grew wider.

It wouldn't hurt to just take what belonged to them, would it?

They took hold of the girl's left arm and both of her legs; they wrapped their long tentacle arms around her greedily. Hissing and snickering as the limbs shimmered a dark purple color and seemed to depixelize under their tiny little fingers.

Akane felt a strange tingling feeling going through both her legs and both of her arms, the same feeling you get when a leg or arm falls asleep.

She peaked her brown eyes open and did not scream when she was greeted with a psychotic sight. Her brown eyes were glazed over in deep thought.

Blood. There was so much blood. Sufferering. Starvation. Poverty. Disease. Men in blue uniforms. Guns firing. Screams. Blood. Black marble statues smashed. Black and red. Marble and blood. Why was there so much blood? People hiding. Scared children. A tan girl with soft brown eyes.

Akane saw a fuzzy image of a woman and a pudgy, child like man watching the chaos from a high tower. An old, balding man in black robes turning into a feminine boy with long, black hair. Terror. Confusion. A strange tattoo on the pudgy man's tongue. Screams. Blood.

All the wide, inhuman eyes that were floating in the darkness, observing Akane, were staring deep into her mind, implanting the images and events in her mind.

'Why is there so much blood?' Akane thought, before her dazed eyes slipped shut and she screamed as the pain finally registered in her mind.

_Human kind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return._

_To obtain, something of equal value must be lost._

_That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange._

_In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth._

Ranma sat silently in Akane's room, amidst the chaos and destruction, clutching the picture in his white knuckled hands. He heard everyone running up the stairs all at once and throw the door open. He could only imagine their faces when they opened the door and found Akane's room the way it was, and Ranma, looking so weak and defeated, on his knees.

Kasumi took a step forward, a hand clutched to her chest, looking around the room. She stopped when she was standing by Ranma. Kasumi looked down at the floor and noticed the circle made of blood. Both of her hands flew to her mouth. "Oh my! What happened here?"

"You tell me," Ranma muttered. He got to his feet and grasped Kasumi's shoulders. "Where is Akane? What happened to her? Why is she in this picture?" Ranma asked, hysterical. He shoved the picture in Kasumi's face.

"R-Ranma, I don't know. I have no idea…I-I have no…" Kasumi sounded so helpless and broken. The older girl sunk to her knees and started to cry.

Nabiki stepped forward. "Back off, Saotome! Leave Kasumi alone!" Nabiki knelt next to her sister. "Hey sis, you okay?"

Kasumi sadly shook her head, sobs wracking her body. "Why does this happen to us? Why did this have to happen to us again?"

"Again?" Ranma asked. "What does she mean by again?"

Nabiki threw Ranma a look that promised pain if he continued to speak. "It's alright, Kasumi, just calm down."

"No, Nabiki, it's not alright!" Kasumi wailed. "Oh! Akane! My baby sister! It's happening all over again! Why?" Kasumi cried.

"I think I can answer that question," an ancient, wise voice spoke from behind Genma and Soun, who were still standing in the doorway.

Every head turned.

And there was Cologne, her short stature handing on to her tall walking stick, her granddaughter, Shampoo, standing obediently behind the older woman.

"Cologne," Ranma breathed out. "What are you doing here?"

Cologne hopped further into the room, her granddaughter three steps behind her. "I am here because I felt someone pierce the veil between the worlds, a disturbance, if you will, here, in this house."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Ranma asked.

Cologne jumped down from her walking stick and wondered over to the circle written in blood on the carpeted floor. "This, is the source of the disturbance, it has been used to travel between two worlds. But how? That's impossible," Cologne spoke to herself.

"Listen to me!" Ranma yelled in outrage. "What are you talking about?"

Cologne narrowed her wide eyes at Ranma. "Ranma."

The pigtailed boy froze; the old woman called him by his name and not son-in-law.

"Let me see that picture, boy," the elder commanded, holding out her shriveled up old hand to take the picture.

Ranma looked down at the picture that was still clutched in his fist. He hesitantly gave it to Cologne who studied the picture carefully, like looking for a hidden image inside the picture. "Just as I thought."

"What?" Ranma asked eagerly.

"The house in the background, it looks exactly as I remember it. There is that same swing," Cologne said fondly.

"Wha-what? What are you talking about? What do you mean by 'exactly as I remember it'? I think you have some explaining to do, old woman," Ranma commanded.

"Shampoo," Cologne sighed.

The purple haired girl nodded her head and walked over to Ranma. "Ranma, please, keep quiet. Great-grandmother, explain everything," Shampoo said calmly. Ranma was surprised the girl didn't glomp him, this was actually the first time she had spoken since the Amazon duo had gotten there.

"Ranma," Cologne started. "All of you," she corrected herself, realizing there were more people in the room who were listening the whole time. "I am much older than you think I am, you believe me to be hundreds of years old, I am actually thousands. Time and space is very tricky business so try and keep up. This world is not my home, I originally come from a dimension where alchemy, a form of magical science, exists. I have witnessed things that you wouldn't think are possible. I have studied under many teachers and met very bad people with greedy hearts."

"I don't…" Ranma started.

"Quiet, boy," Cologne snapped. "You wanted to know, so I'm telling you." Cologne cleared her throat. "Anyway, I was once a master in the art of Alchemy. I was a wonderer, going wherever I wished to go. When one day, I was traveling upon an old country road and came to an old town, Resembool I believe the name was, and I met a group of young children, sweet kids." Cologne smiled softly as she remembered the cool wind blowing threw her violet hair and the sound of laughter filling her ears. "Can you guess who the children were?"

"You met Akane?" Nabiki asked. "Back then? In another world? Before you came to Nerima?"

"That is right, Ms. Nabiki Tendo, I did," Cologne said, nodding her head. "She was so young and sweet, just learning the art of alchemy. She made little trinkets and she was…happy."

"What was she like back then?" Kasumi whispered, sniffling. "Please, tell me."

Cologne sighed and smiled sadly at the young lady. "Like I said, she was happy. With her life, with her family, and with her friends. She lived in this quaint little house with her adoptive mother and two adoptive brothers." Cologne pointed to the house in the background and the two blonds in the picture with Akane.

"What were their names?" Ranma asked, clenching his fists.

Cologne put a finger to her chin in thought. "I believe this one," she pointed to the sandy blond with a few freckles on his cheeks. "Was Alphonse Elric, Al for short."

"And the other one?" Ranma ground out.

Cologne took longer to answer that question, she honestly couldn't remember the boy's name. She flipped the picture over and read the details. "Just as I thought, Edward Elric."

"Damn it!" Ranma yelled kicking a fallen object hard against the wall.

Meanwhile, in another dimension, Edward Elric was running down a deserted street, away from Scar, Doctor Marco in tow.

"Please, leave me to die, he wants me, not you, just go and save yourself," the doctor tried to reason with the stubborn blond.

"Will you quit saying that? I won't let you die, I won't let any more people die!" Ed yelled. He felt his heart squeeze painfully as he remembered that look on her face, when she died and suffered, because of him.

_"Ed!" she called from the top of the hill, waving both her arms like she was flagging down a boat. "Come on!" she giggled, before running off._

"Brother!" Alphonse called from the entry of an alley. "Come on!"

Back in a different universe, Cologne's eyes widened at Ranma's outburst. "What's wrong with you?" the older woman asked.

"Is there any way to go to this different universe?" Ranma asked, ignoring the question that Cologne asked.

Cologne blinked in confusion. "Of course there is, bu—" Cologne was interrupted by Ranma.

"No buts! If there is a way, that doesn't matter! You have to tell me—!"

There was a large smack of flesh against flesh. Everyone stood in complete shock as they realized what had just happened. Shampoo had slapped Ranma.

"Ranma! Listen to great-grandmother! She know a lot! Shampoo may not know so much of alchemy as great-grandmother does, but Shampoo do know that it dangerous to do something you want to do!" Shampoo yelled, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Cologne looked up at her great-granddaughter sadly. "Alright, Shampoo, I'll take it from here." Cologne turned to Ranma and shot him an icy glare. "My granddaughter is right, it is dangerous to do something that you are asking for. First of all, you are not an alchemist and never will be because such power needed does not live in this world. Look at the transmutation circle on the floor here. This is something very complex that most alchemist spend most of their life studying, it is very advanced and to perform something of this caliber you would have to undergo rigorous training and be taught the science of life and creation. And lets face it, Ranma, you barely maintain a C average in high school.

"Besides years of training and lesson, alchemists must have a severe tolerance for pain. As a martial artist you have some tolerance Ranma but not enough to withstand the pain some alchemists have to endure. And lastly, it is not as easy as just passing through dimensions as it is to pass through an open door. You must first pass through the gate where you must make a sacrifice – a limb, internal organs, maybe even a spirit – to be able to pass through the gate. Do you understand that this is not just something you can master in a night like you can with martial arts? This is a lifelong lesson, alchemists spend most of their life studying and learning. This is a very complex art, I can't even begin to describe it to you." Cologne paused, she took in a breath and then sighed it out. "But you still want to learn, don't you?"

Ranma nodded and got down on one knee before Cologne. "Will you please make me your apprentice and teach me the art of alchemy?"

Cologne stared at the young man for a moment. "You realize that it might take years before you are able to move between worlds, don't you? Are you patient enough to wait that long to get Akane back?" Cologne asked.

Ranma nodded.

Cologne sighed again, she had a feeling she would be doing that a lot. "Once you clean up and get your head out of your own ass you can come visit me at the Cat Café," Cologne said before walking towards the door. "Come along, Shampoo."

"Yes, great-grandmother," Shampoo said with her head down, like a puppy that had been kicked. She followed her grandmother out of the room and out of the house.

In a space between the two worlds, Akane felt like shit. She had no conscious thought, a white-hot pain was the only thing she could feel and the only thing her brain could register. She didn't even have enough energy to scream anymore.

Then it felt like she was kicked in the gut and she no longer had that feeling of being suspended in air. She was lying on her back, lying in a pool of warm liquid. She felt so drowsy. She felt a strange tingling feeling in her left shoulder and both of her thighs.

Her eyes were staring straight into the sun but she didn't feel the need to blink and turn away. She wondered for a moment if she was dead but when she felt pain course through her body she knew that she was still alive…barely. A cool breeze blew over her and it made her hiss in pain as it came in contact with her severed skin.

She now knew she was lying on her back, in grass, in a pool of her own blood. She knew that she had made a sacrifice and had given both her legs and her left arm as payment. And she knew that she was dying.

Akane tried to stay conscious, but it was getting harder, even though a loud dog was barking practically in her ear. A silhouette of a person stood over her, blocking the sun. The person was a girl with golden hair tied up in a ponytail. The girl was talking to her. What was she saying?

"Akane? Oh my God! Someone help! Akane, hang in there!"

Winry?

Why was there so much blood in the world?

-/-

**A/N: Okay, there is chapter 2. I'm sorry that it is lame and I am sure that some of you are very confused and thinking, "What the hell?" but there will be a chapter(s) devoted to explaining everything, so please, be patient with me!**

**So, Cologne enters the story, I love that old woman so I had to give her a bigger role in this story. And her role will be elaborated on later on and how she is tied to the past. Her little speech was kinda unexpected too, huh? I just started writing it and I was thinking, "Okay, this will work."**

**In case some of you were wondering, the visions Akane has about the blood is from the beginning of episode 14 season 1 in Lior when the rebellion is starting. And I know the dialogue between Marco and Ed didn't really go like that, but I had to manipulate it to make it work.**

**Sorry for the short chapter. Review! **


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